Batting practice has traditionally involved either a live pitcher or a pitching machine. In either case a ball is thrown horizontally towards the batter so that he may improve his swing and control. This type of batting practice obviously requires a substantial distance between the pitcher and the batter so that the batter's performance can be improved through judgment of the speed and direction of the horizontally projected ball. Thus, this type of batting practice requires a field, or at least some distance between the pitching machine and the batter.
So-called tees have also been used, in which a shaft is provided with a cup at the top. The ball is placed in the cup until hit by the batter, with the shaft being made flexible so as to be able to take the shock occasioned by batting practice. It will be appreciated that this type of apparatus produces an unnatural spin on the ball, resulting in a different flight path than that which would be expected were the ball to be suspended at the batting position.
As illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,858,921; 4,575,080; 4,564,195; and 5,011,144, balls for hitting or stroking practice have been suspended on a column of air, with the ball being suspended in one position. While this type of arrangement eliminates the problem of having a physical tee to support the ball prior to its being hit, the notion of suspending a ball in one position does not provide the batter with means for improving his timing. This is because the ball is suspended, or is intended to be suspended, at one position.
There are of course automatic ball servers such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,207,857; 4,027,646; 4,094,294; 3,911,888; and 3,584,614. Such a ball throwing machine is also illustrated in U.K. Patent Application No. GB2,057,893A filed Sep. 10, 1980. It is a characteristic of all of these ball throwing machines that the balls are launched or thrown in a substantially horizontal direction, either for stroking such as in tennis, or for hitting such as in baseball.
As mentioned above, all of the horizontal ball throwing machines require substantial distance between the throwing machine and the batter or person stroking the ball, such that these systems are not adapted to apartment or home use, or any indoor use in general.